"I have had no money for the household expenses during the last ten days; I owe six months' wages to the servants.

Twice I have tried to ask my father for money, but did not dare to do so.

You don't know, perhaps, that all the pictures in the gallery have been sold, and all the wines in the cellar ?" "He never told me!" exclaimed Madame Claes.

"My God! thou callest me to thyself in time! My poor children! what will become of them ?" She made a fervent prayer, which brought the fires of repentance to her eyes.
"Marguerite," she resumed, drawing the letter from her pillow, "here is a paper which you must not open or read until a time, after my death, when some great disaster has overtaken you; when, in short, you are without the means of living.

My dear Marguerite, love your father, but take care of your brothers and your sister.